Virtual Athletic Training Educators’ Conference (VATEC) 2024: “Reconnecting and Reenergizing Athletic Training Education,” October 17–18, 2024

Context: Interprofessional education (IPE) is a requirement in the professional preparation of healthcare providers. Barriers to implementing face-to-face IPE include space restrictions, differences in academic calendars, availability of faculty facilitators, and student schedules. Therefore, alternative strategies for implementing a broad swath of professions into IPE learning activities is desirable.

Objective: The main objective of this teaching strategy was to determine the impact of a virtual interprofessional patient care experience on attainment of the IPE core competencies.

Background Description: Three hundred and seventy-four healthcare profession students representing 3 universities and 7 individual educational programs participated in a virtual IPE experience through the Zoom platform. Healthcare professions represented in preassigned interprofessional teams included Athletic Training, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, Physician Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and Social Work. Participants progressed through a facilitated process that included initial team discussion, an initial patient encounter, team development of a plan of care, presentation of the plan to the standardized patient, and a group debriefing using a plus-delta format. At the conclusion of the virtual learning experience, participants were asked to complete the Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey. Survey results indicated that workshop participants reported up to an 80% improvement in the IPE core competencies of interprofessional communication, values and ethics, teamwork, and roles and responsibilities.

Clinical Advantage: The utilization of online platforms creates opportunities for healthcare education programs to develop meaningful interprofessional learning experiences for students regardless of the availability of peer programs on their own campus.

Conclusion: Programs should consider virtual learning experiences as an alternative to face-to-face IPE when faced with barriers to implementation.

Key Words: online, interprofessional education

Context: The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and platforms like ChatGPT in higher education highlights the need for new policies that protect academic integrity. New policies are essential to navigate the complexities and opportunities AI presents in athletic training education, ensuring its use supports rather than undermines student learning.

Objective: To discuss the various ways athletic training education programs can develop and adopt academic policies that delineate the use of AI in athletic training programs.

Background: With AI’s expanding footprint in education, its impact on traditional teaching methodologies and academic integrity prompts critical examination. Athletic training programs should explore how to effectively integrate AI tools to augment learning experiences without diminishing the value of direct faculty instruction and student innovation.

Description: Academic policies on AI utilization must be explicitly outlined within course syllabi, detailing the extent to which AI, such as ChatGPT, is permitted (eg, prohibited, as a reference tool, or for unrestricted use). For courses allowing AI as a reference tool or for unrestricted use, educators should develop precise guidelines for AI’s application in specific assignments. It is also important to provide alternatives to AI-assisted assignments for students who prefer traditional methods or have concerns about AI’s impact on learning. Faculty are encouraged to model the proper and ethical use of AI in academic settings, illustrating its potential benefits and limitations. This demonstration can foster a balanced understanding and critical evaluation of AI’s role in education.

Clinical Advantage(s): With clearly defined academic policies, athletic training programs can seamlessly integrate AI with traditional pedagogical approaches. AI has the potential to enrich course content, stimulate student engagement, and enhance students’ critical reasoning and decision-making abilities.

Conclusion(s): As we navigate the evolving landscape of higher education, proactive engagement with AI tools like ChatGPT paves the way for a more dynamic, inclusive, and innovative learning environment in athletic training education. By establishing clear guidelines for AI use, athletic training programs will not only safeguard academic integrity but also ensure that students are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to properly integrate AI into their learning, preparing them for a future where technology and healthcare intersect more than ever before.

Key Words: artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, academic policies

Context: Interprofessional education (IPE) activities provide opportunities for students to interact with each other as well as learn with and from each other. The knowledge of students in Athletic Training (AT) and Orthotist (CO) programs regarding the scope of practice or roles and responsibilities on the healthcare team has not been assessed.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess basic knowledge of AT and CO scope of practice among students in these graduate programs. A secondary aim was to evaluate the attitudes of AT and CO students toward IPE.

Background: Sports account for 10 to 40% of facial fractures each year (Viozzi 2017). Athletes can be cleared to participate within days of injury but still need the injury to be protected. The most effective form of protection is a custom face mask (Ghoseri 2013), which is designed and fabricated by an orthotist. It is important for the AT to communicate with the CO to explain the injury, the needs of the athlete, and any sport-specific rule restrictions so the CO can develop an effective treatment. It is important each must understand the other professional’s capabilities and effectively communicate to ensure a safe return to play.

Data Source: Subjects were recruited from students enrolled in an ORPR/ATTR course at Eastern Michigan University or AT course at Adrian College. The SPICE-R2 was used to assess attitudes toward IPE. A 10-question knowledge check about the scope of practice for AT and CO. After obtaining consent, participants were provided with the online survey.

Data Synthesis: Responses were obtained from 29 AT and 55 CO students. The overall number of correct responses for the AT (n = 5) and CO (n = 5) questions was 77.4% and 92.9%, respectively. AT students correctly answered the CO questions at 82.8% and the AT questions at 72.4%. The CO students correctly answered the AT questions at 80% and CO questions at 98.2%.

Integrative Conclusion: Collaboration in healthcare is necessary to meet patient needs by a variety of professions. Tension in the team can occur when there are unclear roles and responsibilities. IPE experiences can provide opportunities for healthcare students to increase their knowledge of other healthcare professions. The knowledge of AT and CO students regarding each other’s professions has limitations, especially regarding the role in treatment planning and responsibilities in the care of an athlete. IPE is welcomed by students and could be effective at increasing knowledge of the AT and CO professions. Students agreed that IPE experiences enhance their education. Well-developed IPE activities can provide an opportunity for students to learn from and work with other professions.

Key Words: interprofessional education, facemasks

Context: Clinical experiences enable athletic training students to practice patient care skills and interactions, gain experience in real-life situations, and build confidence as a clinician. Self-reflection has been identified as a practice that can increase the benefits of educational experiences, such as clinical experiences.

Objective: To identify the benefits for athletic training students who complete structured self-reflection through video log assignments and to discuss how to design video log assignments to encourage in-depth self-reflection.

Background: Healthcare and higher education programs have identified self-reflection as a method that increases overall student learning following an educational experience. In fact, some educational experts believe students do not learn from experience itself but rather from subsequent reflection on that experience. Self-reflection is identified as a critical component of learning in healthcare education and can aid in the development of competence, humanism, and professionalism.

Description: Athletic training program administrators and faculty members can use self- reflection assignments related to clinical experiences to encourage athletic training students to reflect on their experiences in order to learn from them. Athletic training students can reflect on their clinical experiences through video logging (vlogging), facilitating deeper understanding, modifying original perceptions, and creating new insights. Vlogging allows students to talk through their reflection while using technology they are familiar with, as opposed to writing down thoughts. Recording the self-reflection, as opposed to writing it, incorporates a video medium, which may be more comfortable for today’s students and enables the inclusion of more content and candor from the student through a mechanism that is more time efficient for the student to complete and for the faculty to evaluate and provide feedback.

Clinical Advantages: Positive clinical education experiences are directly related to a student’s commitment to the profession. By incorporating reflective assignments into clinical education courses, athletic training faculty can encourage students to reflect on their clinical experiences effectively and efficiently, therefore boosting their self-guided learning.

Conclusion: Reflection is a key component in healthcare education. Video logging assignments can be utilized to encourage thoughtful and inclusive self-reflection in athletic training students to improve learning outcomes.

Key Words: clinical experience, self-reflection, video log

Context: Simulation is increasingly used in clinical education to meet various learning outcomes and objectives, including didactic and psychomotor skills. Simulation is frequently categorized through the level of “fidelity” or realism to authentic clinical practice. The fidelity of simulation is frequently classified as ranging from “high-fidelity simulation” (HFS) to “low-fidelity simulation” (LFS).

Objective: For educators, appropriate simulation modality selection and implementation is vital to ensuring optimal learning outcomes, as evidence across educational domains demonstrates that simulation can be optimized using the correct level of realism.

Background: It is vital to discuss that there is controversy regarding the description of simulation based on fidelity, as several attributes are discussed when considering the concept of overall fidelity (Hamstra et al. 2014; Tun et al. 2015). Factors affecting the realism of simulation include environmental factors, clinical scenario realism, and the realism of the simulated patient (Tun et al. 2015) as well as the psychological fidelity of the learner (Kozlowski & DeShon 2004). While HFS is commonly considered the optimal modality for improving student learning and has a robust literature base to support its effectiveness, it is frequently costly, difficult to scale, and time intensive.

Description: Accordingly, low- and medium-fidelity simulation has been proposed as an alternate, as it is frequently easier to scale and less resource intensive. Additionally, low- and medium-fidelity simulation is increasingly being accomplished using a variety of technological solutions, including augmented and virtual reality, computer-based gaming, and others. While the research on lower-fidelity simulation is more complex and mixed, certain learning objectives are more amenable to lower-fidelity simulation levels, including discrete psychomotor skills and basic foundational knowledge. Furthermore, according to the concept of cognitive loading theory, LFS is frequently recommended for novice learners due to the limitations of confounding factors that are likely to overwhelm new learners (Munshi et al. 2015; Norman et al. 2012).

Clinical Advantage(s): LFS is much more economical than HFS, with the cost of HFS found to be 3 times as costly as LFS (Haerling 2018). LFS can also be more effectively scaled across both physical locations and be performed asynchronously, which allows students more equitable access and improved capacity for repetition, which is key to improved learning outcomes with simulation (Ellinas et al. 2015; Mills & Winston 2022).

Conclusion(s): Simulation is an effective learning tool for educators to improve student outcomes and objectives. While HFS may be optimal for advanced learners and complex cognitive tasks, LFS may be a more effective tool for novice learners and those looking to demonstrate discrete skill applications.

Key Words: cognitive loading, realism, fidelity

Context: Athletic training education programs must prepare students to recognize mental health conditions and develop referral plans for patients. In professional practice, a collaborative approach is best to maximize support of these patients. There is a need to better equip athletic trainers in building these interprofessional collaborations as students. Creating an interprofessional simulation to prepare athletic training, clinical mental health, and school health counseling students to interact in creating a referral plan for a patient can provide those students with the opportunity to learn about their specific roles in addressing mental health concerns.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if a simulated interprofessional experience between athletic training, clinical mental health counseling, and school health counseling could improve participants’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration.

Background: Simulation-enhanced interprofessional education is one way that programs could prepare students for interprofessional collaboration to identify and manage behavioral health conditions. Simulation is an experiential learning technique that allows students to engage in patient care scenarios in a safe learning environment and can include the use of standardized patients, which are individuals trained to portray a condition in a standardized manner for all participants. Using simulation to enhance interprofessional education can provide a way for multiple health professions students to collaborate for optimal patient care.

Description: A standardized patient scenario was developed to create an interprofessional simulation between athletic training, clinical mental health counseling, and school health counseling students. The scenario was built upon a patient presenting with suicidal ideation and involved initial evaluation by athletic training students, a short debrief, and a coordinated handoff from the athletic training students to clinical mental health counseling students and finished with a shortened clinical mental health intake interview. At the conclusion of the intake interview, the entire group was debriefed. The scenario was developed to encourage interaction between health professions students and emphasize the importance of a collaborative effort in recognizing and developing care plans for a mental health concern. Pre- and postevent data were collected using the JEFFSATIC survey to determine the impact of the simulation on participants’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration.

Clinical Advantage: Implementing interprofessional simulations with athletic training, clinical mental health, and school health counseling students can have a positive impact on student learning and assist in preparing students for professional practice involving mental health concerns.

Conclusion: Data from the study demonstrated an overall improvement in attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration among all programs; however, those results were not statistically significant. Although there were no statistically significant differences found, anecdotal data during the debrief suggests participants valued this experience, and more research should be completed in this area to determine future impact in education.

Key Words: standardized patient, suicidal ideation, mental health

Context: The focus of the 2020 Standards for Accreditation of Professional Athletic Training Programs “is to explicitly define the requirements to achieve and maintain CAATE accreditation.” Standards 54 to 94, with an additional DEI standard, speak specifically to curricular content. Of note is Standard 77: Identify, refer, and give support to patients with behavioral health conditions. This standard emphasizes the importance of behavioral health, yet a disconnect exists. Students are taught how to be aware of and care for the mental health of their patients but not their own. Gratitude practices are an emerging form of psychological skills training. Heightened levels of meaningfulness, engagement, and stress management have been demonstrated using gratitude journaling.

Objective: To explore the benefits of gratitude journaling for graduate students as they navigate the challenges of graduate school.

Design: Pretest-posttest.

Setting: University graduate school.

Subjects/Participants: Graduate occupational therapy and physician assistant study students. Thirty-nine participants completed the pretest questionnaire. Of these, 15 students also completed the posttest questionnaire. The age range of participants was 22 to 38 years of age.

Intervention(s): All participants received a gratitude journal. Half received one with daily guided prompts and half received one with the prompt “Write about 3 things you are grateful for” each day. One class was identified in each program where the students were given 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning of the class, once a week, to fill out the journal. Students were also encouraged to use the journals on days not in class. We distributed online questionnaires at baseline, 30, 60, and 90 days.

Main Outcome Measures: Three measurements were made at each time point: the Perceived Stress Scale to assess participants’ perceived stress levels, the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 to measure gratitude levels, and the Life Orientation Questionnaire to gauge participants’ level of optimism.

Results: Only pretest and posttest data were analyzed due to data variability. A paired-sample t test found a significant decrease in perceived stress from baseline (M = 27.13, SD = 5.33) to posttest (M = 23.47, SD = 7.24), t₁₄ = 2.32, P = .04, d = 0.60. Additionally, a significant difference was observed in optimism from pretest (M = 27.40, SD = 4.98) to posttest (M = 30.80, SD = 6.48), t₁₄ = 2.67, P = .02, d = 0.69. Levels of gratitude did not show significant changes from pretest (M = 33.93, SD = 4.42) to posttest (M = 35.27, SD = 6.06), t₁₄ = 0.89, P = .39, d = 0.23. Differences in stress, gratitude, and optimism were examined also when comparing the guided prompts versus the 3-item journal. However, no significant differences were observed for any of these variables.

Conclusions: In examining the impact of gratitude journaling on perceived stress, gratitude, and optimism among college students, our study contributes to the growing body of research exploring the psychological benefits of gratitude practices. The observed decrease in stress and increase in optimism, as well as the positive upward trend of gratitude, were encouraging findings.

Key Words: education, resiliency, supplemental practices

Context: Integrating IPE into educational curricula is necessary to promote collaborative practice-ready athletic trainers. However, these experiences can be challenging to organize synchronous learning experiences when working with program schedules across disciplines. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) can be used in the academy to address these challenges.

Objective: Describe the pedological design and implementation of VR and AI avatar experiences in an interprofessional curriculum.

Background: VR is a technological advancement that offers authentic experiences in the form of videos, avatars, and games that can promote skill development in the 4 core values of IPE: values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teamwork, as identified by the Interprofessional Educational Collaborative. AI is a computing system that can engage in human-like processes such as learning, synthesizing, self-correction, and data integration for complex processing tasks. AI technologies generate human-like content in response to complex and varied prompts and are blended with VR, immersing the user in simulated environments to make the experience more thoughtful and interactive, allowing for repeated practice to enhance skill development and conservation of resources.

Description: Students enrolled in AT, PA, PT, OT, and SLP programs participate in 3 virtual learning experiences: a VR emergency preparedness disaster scenario, a managing bad news in healthcare through telehealth AI avatar SP (standardized patients), and a telehealth practices promoting psychosocial well-being AI avatar SP as part of the Schools IPE Journey of Professional Transformation curriculum. The 3 experiences occur sequentially beginning in year 1 fall semester, then year 1 spring semester, and finally year 2 fall semester. All 3 experiences follow the same 4-phase approach. Phase 1 consists of a preknowledge, attitudes, and beliefs survey. Then, in phase 2, they have 1 week to review flipped learning resource materials curated to support the learning activity. In phase 3, they meet with their IPE team members and complete the active learning experience. In phase 4, students engage in a debriefing experience and complete a postknowledge, attitudes, and beliefs survey.

Clinical Advantage(s): The 3 VR and AI SP simulation experiences allow for flexible, low-stakes, collaborative learning environments that can be scalable to large populations where students can repeatedly engage in the experience to practice specific skills and promote readiness for entry-level practice while reducing the need for physical space. While the initial creation of the content can be costly, we have calculated that the VR and AI technologies employed showed cost savings starting at year 2 of its implementation compared with in-person live actor SP costs.

Conclusion(s): IPE learning experiences employing VR and AI avatar SPE are impactful in promoting student readiness while addressing barriers associated with live SPE. Faculty play a pivotal role in designing and executing meaningful IPE learning experiences. Further research is needed to establish VR and AI avatar SPE as a pedagogical method.

Key Words: interprofessional education, standardized patient encounters, immersive learning experiences, student readiness, collaborative practice, patient-centered care

Context: As indicated in the literature, there are concerns within athletic training (AT) education related to student motivation, attrition from programs, and poor professional socialization. The nature of the problem is centered around clinical integration, specifically in understanding students experience clinical integration.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to understand how students experience the clinical component of their preparation and the phenomenon of integration.

Background: Integration is the application of scientific content knowledge into a setting that reflects the real world of practice. Within the AT literature, the concept of integration, or the bridging of didactic and clinical preparation, is often referred to as clinical integration. Clinical integration has been studied, but not from the perspective of AT students.

Description: I sought to understand how students experienced the clinical component of AT programs and the phenomenon of integration. I wanted to understand how students constructed meaning and experienced their preparation. Thus, I selected a qualitative research design for this study, specifically phenomenological research methods.

Clinical Advantage(s): The phenomenon of integration is actually seeing in the real world that you know; it is the willingness to apply learned classroom knowledge to the clinical setting and the ability to bridge clinical scenarios back to what is being learned in the classroom. Faculty members are in a very unique position in AT education as they have the entire cohort of students present at the same time to disseminate information. If a faculty member can promote conversation in the classroom related to situations in students’ clinical rotations, this will give students an invaluable opportunity to discuss their own lived experiences, seeking to make meaning out of their own reality from experiences in the clinical setting. Similarly, a faculty member has the ability to use case studies, simulation, and hands-on learning activities to replicate a “real-life” situation in a completely controlled environment. Preceptors need to be nurturing, honest, and trustworthy, building relationships with the AT students, including creating a safe environment where students understand that making mistakes is an important part of learning and growth. When a preceptor is working with a patient, they can provide autonomous learning opportunities for the AT student. Enabling a student to reflect upon their skills and actions drives them to interpret these actions and create meaning, thus contributing to how they provide care in the future.

Conclusion(s): The process of integration and seeing that you know is a process of building relationships where students can exchange ideas and think about what they learn in the classroom and how it applies in practice. This process is most impacted by the relationship the student has with the preceptor. Students who had strong relationships with preceptors built on trust and who felt supported to practice patient care and safe to make mistakes reported higher levels of clinical integration, greater motivation, and higher confidence and remained in AT programs.

Key Words: clinical integration, preceptor, athletic training student

1. Blumer H. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. University of California Press, Ltd; 1969.

2. Dodge T, Mitchell M, Mensch J. Student retention in athletic training education programs. J Athl Train. 2009;44(2):197–207.

3. Dodge T, Mazzerolle SM, Bowman TC. Variability in clinical integration achieved by athletic training students across different clinical sport assignments. Athl Train Educ J. 2015;10(1):75–78.

4. Mensch J, Ennis C. Pedagogic strategies perceived to enhance student learning in athletic training education. J Athl Train. 2002;37(4 Supplement):199–207.

5. Young A, Klossner J, Docherty C, Dodge T, Mensch J. Clinical integration and how it affects student retention in undergraduate athletic training programs. J Athl Train. 2013;48(1):68–78.

Context: Athletic trainers work under the supervision of a physician and in conjunction with other healthcare professionals. Therefore, interprofessional education (IPE) in ATPs should better prepare clinicians to provide patient-centered and congruent care.

Objective: The purpose of this presentation is to provide interactive examples of IPE between AT professional programs and other health care professions across 3 institutions.

Background: The most recent CAATE Standard requiring IPE presents both challenges and opportunities. The challenges institutions may face are both logistical and financial. Some opportunities include the availability of technology and filling the gaps of clinical opportunities. It is also important to note that WHO recognizes that IPE skills are necessary to improve patient outcomes.

Description: The collaborators developed a total of 6 IPE assignments for students to participate in during the 2023 to 2024 academic year. Professional students outside of athletic training included public health, health administration, nursing, orthotics and prosthetics, social work, and applied sport psychology. All IPE required students to reflect at the conclusion of the project on what they had learned in writing, in person with faculty, or both.

Clinical Advantages: Multimodal IPE provides students with opportunities to work with and learn from other healthcare providers. These activities permitted students to reflect on what they learned about themselves, other professions, and congruent care. Anecdotally, students reported the knowledge and skills gained were readily transferable to professional practice.

Conclusion: Evidence supports the value of IPE in patient-centered care. The implementation of multiple IPE projects provides future clinicians exposure to collaboration in a variety of potentially underrepresented scenarios in athletic training, thereby increasing patient-centered and congruent care.

Key Words: interprofessional education, collaboration, communication, healthcare team

Context: It is critical for Masters of Science in Athletic Training (MSAT) students to understand the social determinants of health to implement risk reduction and wellness and improve health literacy of patients, especially in rural areas where healthcare access is lacking.

Objective: This learning activity was created to (1) provide access to preparticipation exams (PPEs) and associated patient education (Standard 84) to rural underserved secondary school students (Standard 56, DEI2) and (2) provide a real-life project-based learning (PBL) experience for MSAT students to plan (Standard 81), implement (Standards 81, 88, and 89), and assess (Standard 63) a PPE event with complete autonomy.¹

Background: PPEs are essential in sports to assess an athlete’s health status and identify any underlying medical conditions that may affect their sport participation.² The medical community recommends that PPEs be conducted within the medical home of the athlete/their primary care provider.^3,4 Rural underserved populations may have barriers related to their social determinants of health³ that limit access to a primary care provider/medical home clinic. These barriers include distance, transportation, out-of-pocket expenses,⁴ and healthcare literacy. Athletic trainers (ATs) are in an optimal position to provide healthcare to rural populations.⁵ Professional AT students must be assessed on their ability to plan and implement PPEs (Standard 81) as a requirement of their professional preparation. PBL is a student-centered form of pedagogical delivery characterized by the inclusion of autonomy, collaboration, and communication within real-world practices.⁶ PBL provides a vehicle for students to engage in the learning process⁷ through authentic application of professional knowledge and skills in ways that are not possible through traditional learning environments and assessment techniques.

Description: MSAT students in their final semester plan this activity and execute a live PPE event as part of their Administration of AT and Clinical Experiences in AT IV courses. Students were assessed through various project assessments that led to the execution of the PPE: (1) Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats analysis (Standard 88), (2) Written Proposal (Standards 56, 63, 65, 66, 84, 89), (3) Oral Proposal (Standards 56, 59, 63, 64, 81, 89), (4) PPE Project Event (Standards 56, 59, 61, 62, 81, DEI 2), and (5) PPE Project Event Outcomes Analysis (Standards 57, 59, 63, DEI 2).

Clinical Advantage(s): MSAT students designed, implemented, and collaborated with physicians (residency program) and other health care professions in the administration of a PPE event for a rural school community. The faculty observed and assessed the real-life autonomous practice of students during the PPE activity implementation. Communication with all stakeholders and professionals involved was executed in various modes. During this activity, students showed their ability to apply information related to cultural competence, humility, and respect for their patient populations in the rural underserved secondary school setting.

Conclusions: MSAT faculty may consider utilizing project-based learning by developing partnerships with secondary schools in rural underserved areas that may lack healthcare access such as PPEs.

1. Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education Standards and Procedures for Accreditation of Professional Programs in Athletic Training: Implementation and Guide to the CAATE 2020 Professional Standards. Updated July 2024. Standards_and_Procedures_Professional_Programs.pdf (caate.net)

2. Conley KM, Bolin DJ, Carek PJ, Konin JG, Neal TL, Violette D. National Athletic Trainers’ Association position statement: preparticipation physical examinations and disqualifying conditions (published correction appears in J Athl Train. 2014;49(2):284). J Athl Train. 2014;49(1):102–120. doi:10.4085/1062-6050- 48.6.05

3. Wise MW, Cole C, Provance A. Preparticipation sports physical evaluation in adolescents. Prim Care Clin Office Pract.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2024.05.004

4. MacDonald J, Schaefer M, Stumph J. The preparticipation physical evaluation. Am Fam Phys. 2021;103(9):539–546.

5. Picha KJ, Welch Bacon CE, Normore C, Snyder Valier AR. Social determinants of health: considerations for athletic health care. J Athl Train. 2022;57(6):521–531. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-0010.21

6. Kokotaski D, Menzies V, Wiggins A. Project-based learning: a review of literature. Improv Sch. 2016;19(3) 267–277. doi:10.1177/1365480216659733

7. Almulla MA. The effectiveness of the project-based learning (PBL) approach as a way to engage students in learning. Sage Open. 2020;10(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020938

Context: There are challenges and deceased confidence in athletic trainers regarding the recognition, assessment, and intervention for patients with mental health/behavioral health conditions. New professional education standards require AT students to be able to recognize, intervene, and refer patients experiencing a variety of behavioral health conditions. Additionally, students must be able to develop, implement, and revise policies and procedures for the recognition and management of behavioral health crises.

Objective: Describe activities and assessments associated with a semester-long book club used to introduce and reinforce behavioral health concepts using a national best-selling nonfiction book What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan.

Background: Previous literature has cited improvements in professional engagement and development, increased open dialogue and conversation with peers when other healthcare professionals engaged in book clubs.

Description: Using samples from the text, learners engage in selected activities such as small group discussions, role playing, care plan development, and interprofessional behavioral health care team creation. Activities center around advocating for a patient, creating a safety plan, and creating a patient-specific behavioral healthcare team for conditions such as suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. Examples of syllabi, discussion board prompts, rubrics, in-class activities, and other assignments are used to demonstrate the comprehensive nature of the experience.

Clinical Advantage(s): Students take part in a shared experience over an extended period of time, are able to discuss and engage in clinical decision-making, and obtain a “real-life” example of the concepts discussed. The book provides the context for a semester-long case-study that frames multiple activities, simulations, and assessments while also encouraging professional, patient-centered dialogue between peers. The variety of opportunities for participation allow students the option to engage in the method they feel most comfortable, thus increasing overall engagement. The open conversations allow students to share personal experiences, ask questions, and reflect on their reading, thus making discussion around these topics less taboo.

Conclusion(s): This activity encourages professional reflection, deliberate practice, and strategies to address challenges typically associated with teaching and assessing behavioral health conditions to athletic trainers and athletic training students.

Key Words: behavioral health, suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression

Context: The transition to remote teaching in spring 2020 presented significant challenges for student motivation, exacerbated by a lack of consistent schedules and engagement opportunities. Even with the return to face-to-face instruction in fall 2020, students continued to report diminished connections and motivation. Understanding and addressing these motivational challenges is crucial for fostering effective learning environments in both current and future educational contexts.

Objective: This presentation aims to explore how self-determination theory (SDT) can be applied to enhance student motivation and engagement. By utilizing SDT’s framework, educators can develop strategies to create learning environments that better support students’ psychological needs, thereby fostering more internalized and autonomous motivation.

Background: Self-determination theory offers a framework for understanding human motivation by distinguishing between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Traditional views of extrinsic motivation as purely external are expanded by SDT, which conceptualizes it as a continuum ranging from external regulation to integrated regulation. This nuanced perspective offers valuable insights into educational practices, particularly in terms of how motivation can be internalized.

Description: The poster will delve into the core components of SDT, including the spectrum of extrinsic motivation and the essential psychological needs that underpin it: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Examples will illustrate how educators can support these needs through course design, such as offering choices in assignments (autonomy), providing formative feedback (competence), and fostering peer interactions (relatedness). These strategies aim to move students along the motivation continuum towards a more autonomous motivation.

Clinical Advantage: By integrating SDT principles into educational practices, instructors can improve student engagement and motivation, leading to enhanced learning outcomes. Understanding how to meet students’ psychological needs will enable educators to design more effective and supportive learning environments, promoting a more motivated and resilient student body, ultimately helping students to internalize their motivation and become more self-driven learners.

Key Words: self-determination theory, student motivation, educational practices, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, psychological needs, autonomy, competence, relatedness

Scholarship of Integration.

Health care is the result of expertise provided by a variety of disciplines, each of whom typically focus on their own practice area to provide the best possible patient care. Focused expertise often results in healthcare providers who have extensive knowledge in their field. However, they may lack awareness of the capabilities and scope of practice provided by other disciplines. This presentation aims to highlight the often-overlooked extent to which health care disciplines are interconnected and the positive impact collaboration outside of one’s scope of practice can have on patient care. This interdisciplinary activity demonstrates how educators engage students in active learning across multiple health care disciplines. The program provides students with a foundation for recognizing the value of learning from others outside their disciplines. The information presented provides educators with the framework, methods, and foundation for implementation of interdisciplinary programs within their educational institutions.